Divine Mercy Sunday April 27, 2025
Fr. Alexander Albert St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville
“Yet more than ever, believers in the Lord, great numbers of men and women, were added to them.” So our first reading depicts the beginning of the Catholic Church, people joining the Apostles in great numbers. Why do it? Why join the Catholic Church? Considering that around 15% of the entire U.S. population is ex-Catholic or that, in the U.S., about 8 people leave the Church for every 1 person that joins it, it’s an interesting question. Though that number sounds bad, there are still a lot of people joining the Church, so there are a lot of people we could ask. Dioceses all around the country – all around the world, actually – are reporting record numbers of people entering the Church. We just had 6 people do it last week and 7 joining today. Why are so many people swimming against the current?
You’ll find many reasons given by converts. Some do it to be more united to their spouse and family. Some do it because of a powerful encounter with Jesus like an ACTS retreat or something similar. Some do it because they like what they see in a Catholic community and want to be part of it. Some do it because they started doing research on the internet or listening to a podcast or experimenting with a prayer app and they just kind of found themselves pulled in deeper.
Do you know what isn’t a good reason to join the Church? To find a perfect community. If you want a place without hypocrites… won’t find it in the Catholic Church. If you want a group of people who are super consistent and always getting along… you won’t find it in the Catholic Church. If you want flawless leadership… not here. Yes, St. Peter, the first pope, was so holy even his shadow could heal people. Yes, we’ve had some very impressive popes over the last 100 years and Pope Francis – may he rest in peace – certainly made an impression with his very personal, down-to-earth style. Still, St. Peter got publicly rebuked by St. Paul for being a hypocrite and every honest pope has admitted they have significant flaws. If you want a Church without problems, you won’t find it here.
Still, what is the best reason to become Catholic? What is the best reason to stay Catholic? There are 10,000 reasons that all boil down to 1: because it’s true. Still, for most people, simply being true isn’t enough. How many of us have been taught since we were little that, just because something is true doesn’t mean it’s okay to say it? Being true is not a good enough reason to be mean to someone. So it is that Catholicism being true isn’t quite enough for everyone to be Catholic. So, why do I say that’s the best reason to be Catholic? Because unlike that nasty rumor about a coworker, the truth of Catholicism is helpful. It is beautiful. Above all else, everyone should become Catholic and stay Catholic because it has the truth of mercy.
The truth of Catholicism is helpful. Why? Because it helps make sense of a very confusing world. There are indeed a lot of complicated details and teachings that can bog us down, but there are some clear beacons that help us navigate the fog of this world. The most obviously true Catholic dogma is one of the most helpful ones. Which dogma? Original Sin. Far too many people have to learn in a far too cruel way that everyone is broken. Betrayal, abandonment, abuse, disappointment, disillusionment… how many of us have been tempted to lose hope for humanity after seeing someone we thought was good do something bad? But Original Sin is one such teaching that makes sense. It tells us that all human beings are broken, that all of us have a lifelong attraction to doing the wrong thing. We’re not completely depraved, but even the best of us still faces temptation and, with incredibly few exceptions, all of us give in from time-to-time. Knowing that is very helpful in making our way through the world.
The truth of Catholicism is beautiful. Where it is helpful to know why the world is so broken, it is beautiful to know that there is a solution. Our teachings on human nature and the rational organization of the universe give a foundation to actually do something good in this broken world. The life of virtue and loving service proposed by the Church is not a quick-fix, a delusion, or a sales-pitch. It both acknowledges the limitations of human nature and proposes a practical way to deal with those limits. The Church’s teaching on the daily practice of good habits is beautiful for it’s practicality and for it’s most shining examples. Thousands upon thousands of stories of amazing human beings – saints – doing amazingly good things even while they struggled with temptation. Unlike self-help books, however, all of it is fueled by the beautiful truth that it is God’s power that makes such virtue and goodness possible. A whole array of sacraments provides something that philosophy alone could not: grace. It is a mysterious truth, but a beautiful one, that the Church challenges us to grow in virtue while simultaneously offering God’s own strength to succeed at it.
The most helpful and most beautiful truth, however, is that of mercy. This is Divine Mercy Sunday because we always read this gospel on this day: “He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.’” Yes, this is the foundational passage for the truth about the Sacrament of Confession, but it’s also much more than that. Don’t forget that 4 of the 7 sacraments involve the forgiveness of sins: Baptism & Confession are obvious, but remember that Anointing of the Sick can forgive sins when confession isn’t possible and receiving communion appropriately can forgive our venial sins.
This profound act by Jesus is like the capstone of a pyramid, the spire on top of a skyscraper. It is the highest and easiest-to-see piece of a whole structure of mercy. For Jesus to do this and mean it, there must be a whole host of related truths, of foundational beliefs. It assumes that sin is real and a real problem. It conveys the truth that God wants to forgive our sins. It correlates with the human desire to be forgiven. It accounts for our human need to experience forgiveness. It confirms our experience that such forgiveness requires accountability and sincerity to be effective.
There are many, many Catholics who misunderstand these truths and live them poorly, but the truth of mercy survives nonetheless. Why be Catholic? Because Catholicism offers true mercy. It does not pretend there’s nothing wrong but also does not despair when faced with just how wrong things are. It does not bypass our human need to heal, grow and improve over time, but also does not leave us to our own devices.
Why be Catholic? Because it’s true. It’s true that God created the world, that we broke it by our sins, and that God became man. It’s true that Jesus Christ, the God-man, taught, suffered, died, and then rose from the dead all for one reason: to show you mercy. And he not only wanted to be merciful to you, he wanted you to experience that mercy. That’s why he picked the 12, why he gave them the Holy Spirit, why he established the Church to pass down the power he gave the 12. So that, until the end of time, people would have somewhere to go, someone to talk to, some way to be convicted of theirs sins, called to conversion, and ultimately to be able to hear and believe these words: “your sins are forgiven, go in peace.”